Page 53 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

‘Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter,
might make him see reason.’ Here Baloo rubbed his faded
brown shoulder against the Panther, and they went off to
look for Kaa the Rock Python.

They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the
afternoon sun, admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had
been in retirement for the last ten days changing his skin,
and now he was very splendid—darting his big blunt-
nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet
of his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his
lips as he thought of his dinner to come.
‘He has not eaten,’ said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as
soon as he saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow
jacket. ‘Be careful, Bagheera! He is always a little blind
after he has changed his skin, and very quick to strike.’
Kaa was not a poison snake—in fact he rather despised
the poison snakes as cowards—but his strength lay in his
hug, and when he had once lapped his huge coils round
anybody there was no more to be said. ‘Good hunting!’
cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like all snakes of
his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at
first. Then he curled up ready for any accident, his head
lowered.

52 of 241